I 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 6093 

To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require paper ballots 

and risk-limiting audits in all Federal elections, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 13, 2018 

Mr. BLUMENAUER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Committee 

on Science, Space, and Technology, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 

as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require 

paper ballots and risk-limiting audits in all Federal elections, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting American 

5 Votes and Elections Act of 2018’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress makes the following findings: 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
2 

•HR 6093 IH

1 (1) Access to the ballot, free and fair elections, 

2 and a trustworthy election process are at the core of 

3 American democracy. Just as the Founding Fathers 

4 signed their names to paper supporting their views 

5 for a government by and for the people, access to 

6 the paper ballot is the best way to ensure elections 

7 stay by and for the American people. Using paper 

8 provides an easily auditable, tamper proof, and sim9 ple way for citizens to access their ballot. It is for 

10 these reasons and more that using paper ballots to 

11 ensure resilient and fair elections should be the pri12 ority of this Nation. 

13 (2) Risk-limiting audits will help to protect our 

14 elections from cyberattacks, by ensuring that if the 

15 electoral outcome is incorrect, for instance because 

16 someone tampered with the electronic counts or re17 porting, the audit has a large, known probability of 

18 correcting the outcome by requiring a full hand 

19 count. Paper ballots are vital to the audit process 

20 since, other than through manual inspection of a 

21 sample of paper ballots, there is currently no reliable 

22 way to determine whether an election was hacked or 

23 the outcome was miscalculated. 

24 (3) Risk-limiting audits are a cost effective way 

25 of auditing election results. They generally require 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
3 

•HR 6093 IH

1 inspecting only a small percentage of the ballots cast 

2 in an election, and proceed to a full hand count only 

3 when sampling does not provide strong evidence that 

4 the reported outcome is correct. This will ensure 

5 that Americans have confidence in their election re6 sults, without the cost of a full recount of every bal7 lot in the country. 

8 SEC. 3. PAPER BALLOT AND MANUAL COUNTING REQUIRE9 MENTS. 

10 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 301(a)(2) of the Help 

11 America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(2)) is 

12 amended to read as follows: 

13 ‘‘(2) PAPER BALLOT REQUIREMENT.— 

14 ‘‘(A) VOTER-VERIFIED PAPER BALLOTS.— 

15 ‘‘(i) PAPER BALLOT REQUIREMENT.— 

16 (I) The voting system shall require the use 

17 of an individual, durable, voter-verified, 

18 paper ballot of the voter’s vote that shall 

19 be marked and made available for inspec20 tion and verification by the voter before 

21 the voter’s vote is cast and counted, and 

22 which shall be counted by hand or read by 

23 an optical character recognition device or 

24 other counting device. For purposes of this 

25 subclause, the term ‘individual, durable, 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
4 

•HR 6093 IH

1 voter-verified, paper ballot’ means a paper 

2 ballot marked by the voter by hand or a 

3 paper ballot marked through the use of a 

4 nontabulating ballot marking device or sys5 tem, so long as the voter shall have the op6 tion to mark his or her ballot by hand. 

7 ‘‘(II) The voting system shall provide 

8 the voter with an opportunity to correct 

9 any error on the paper ballot before the 

10 permanent voter-verified paper ballot is 

11 preserved in accordance with clause (ii). 

12 ‘‘(III) The voting system shall not 

13 preserve the voter-verified paper ballots in 

14 any manner that makes it possible, at any 

15 time after the ballot has been cast, to asso16 ciate a voter with the record of the voter’s 

17 vote without the voter’s consent. 

18 ‘‘(ii) PRESERVATION AS OFFICIAL

19 RECORD.—The individual, durable, voter20 verified, paper ballot used in accordance 

21 with clause (i) shall constitute the official 

22 ballot and shall be preserved and used as 

23 the official ballot for purposes of any re24 count or audit conducted with respect to 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
5 

•HR 6093 IH

1 any election for Federal office in which the 

2 voting system is used. 

3 ‘‘(iii) MANUAL COUNTING REQUIRE4 MENTS FOR RECOUNTS AND AUDITS.—(I) 

5 Each paper ballot used pursuant to clause 

6 (i) shall be suitable for a manual audit, 

7 and shall be counted by hand in any re8 count or audit conducted with respect to 

9 any election for Federal office. 

10 ‘‘(II) In the event of any inconsist11 encies or irregularities between any elec12 tronic vote tallies and the vote tallies de13 termined by counting by hand the indi14 vidual, durable, voter-verified, paper ballots 

15 used pursuant to clause (i), and subject to 

16 subparagraph (B), the individual, durable, 

17 voter-verified, paper ballots shall be the 

18 true and correct record of the votes cast. 

19 ‘‘(iv) APPLICATION TO ALL BAL20 LOTS.—The requirements of this subpara21 graph shall apply to all ballots cast in elec22 tions for Federal office, including ballots 

23 cast by absent uniformed services voters 

24 and overseas voters under the Uniformed 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
6 

•HR 6093 IH

1 and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act 

2 and other absentee voters. 

3 ‘‘(B) SPECIAL RULE FOR TREATMENT OF

4 DISPUTES WHEN PAPER BALLOTS HAVE BEEN

5 SHOWN TO BE COMPROMISED.— 

6 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—In the event 

7 that— 

8 ‘‘(I) there is any inconsistency 

9 between any electronic vote tallies and 

10 the vote tallies determined by count11 ing by hand the individual, durable, 

12 voter-verified, paper ballots used pur13 suant to subparagraph (A)(i) with re14 spect to any election for Federal of15 fice; and 

16 ‘‘(II) it is demonstrated by clear 

17 and convincing evidence (as deter18 mined in accordance with the applica19 ble standards in the jurisdiction in20 volved) in any recount, audit, or con21 test of the result of the election that 

22 the paper ballots have been com23 promised (by damage or mischief or 

24 otherwise) and that a sufficient num25 ber of the ballots have been so comVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:07 Jun 21, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6093.IH H6093

sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
7 

•HR 6093 IH

1 promised that the result of the elec2 tion could be changed, 

3 the determination of the appropriate rem4 edy with respect to the election shall be 

5 made in accordance with applicable State 

6 law, except that the electronic tally shall 

7 not be used as the exclusive basis for de8 termining the official certified result. 

9 ‘‘(ii) RULE FOR CONSIDERATION OF

10 BALLOTS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH VOTING

11 MACHINE.—For purposes of clause (i), 

12 only the paper ballots deemed com13 promised, if any, shall be considered in the 

14 calculation of whether or not the result of 

15 the election could be changed due to the 

16 compromised paper ballots.’’. 

17 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT CLARIFYING APPLI18 CABILITY OF ALTERNATIVE LANGUAGE ACCESSIBILITY.— 

19 Section 301(a)(4) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(4)) 

20 is amended by inserting ‘‘(including the paper ballots re21 quired to be used under paragraph (2))’’ after ‘‘voting sys22 tem’’. 

23 (c) OTHER CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 

24 301(a)(1) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(1)) is amend25 ed— 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
8 

•HR 6093 IH

1 (1) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking ‘‘count2 ed’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accordance with 

3 paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; 

4 (2) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by striking ‘‘count5 ed’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accordance with 

6 paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; 

7 (3) in subparagraph (A)(iii), by striking ‘‘count8 ed’’ each place it appears and inserting ‘‘counted, in 

9 accordance with paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; and 

10 (4) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking ‘‘count11 ed’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accordance with 

12 paragraphs (2) and (3)’’. 

13 (d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Notwithstanding section 

14 301(d) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 

15 21081(d)), each State and jurisdiction shall be required 

16 to comply with the amendments made by this section for 

17 the regularly scheduled election for Federal office in No18 vember 2020, and for each subsequent election for Federal 

19 office. 

20 SEC. 4. ACCESSIBILITY AND BALLOT VERIFICATION FOR IN21 DIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES. 

22 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 301(a)(3)(B) of the Help 

23 America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(3)(B)) is 

24 amended to read as follows: 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
9 

•HR 6093 IH

1 ‘‘(B)(i) satisfy the requirement of subpara2 graph (A) through the use of at least 1 voting 

3 system equipped for individuals with disabil4 ities, including nonvisual and enhanced visual 

5 accessibility for the blind and visually impaired, 

6 and nonmanual and enhanced manual accessi7 bility for the mobility and dexterity impaired, at 

8 each polling place; and 

9 ‘‘(ii) meet the requirements of subpara10 graph (A) and paragraph (2)(A) by using a sys11 tem that— 

12 ‘‘(I) allows the voter to privately and 

13 independently verify the permanent paper 

14 ballot through the presentation, in acces15 sible form, of the printed or marked vote 

16 selections from the same printed or 

17 marked information that would be used for 

18 any vote counting or auditing; and 

19 ‘‘(II) allows the voter to privately and 

20 independently verify and cast the perma21 nent paper ballot without requiring the 

22 voter to manually handle the paper ballot; 

23 and’’. 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
10 

•HR 6093 IH

1 (b) SPECIFIC REQUIREMENT OF STUDY, TESTING, 

2 AND DEVELOPMENT OF ACCESSIBLE PAPER BALLOT

3 VERIFICATION MECHANISMS.— 

4 (1) STUDY AND REPORTING.—Subtitle C of 

5 title II of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is 

6 amended by inserting after section 246 the following 

7 new section: 

8 ‘‘SEC. 246A. STUDY AND REPORT ON ACCESSIBLE PAPER 

9 BALLOT VERIFICATION MECHANISMS. 

10 ‘‘(a) STUDY AND REPORT.—The Director of the Na11 tional Science Foundation shall make grants to not fewer 

12 than 3 eligible entities to study, test, and develop acces13 sible paper ballot voting, verification, and casting mecha14 nisms and devices and best practices to enhance the acces15 sibility of paper ballot voting and verification mechanisms 

16 for individuals with disabilities, for voters whose primary 

17 language is not English, and for voters with difficulties 

18 in literacy, including best practices for the mechanisms 

19 themselves and the processes through which the mecha20 nisms are used. 

21 ‘‘(b) ELIGIBILITY.—An entity is eligible to receive a 

22 grant under this part if it submits to the Director (at such 

23 time and in such form as the Director may require) an 

24 application containing— 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
11 

•HR 6093 IH

1 ‘‘(1) certifications that the entity shall specifi2 cally investigate enhanced methods or devices, in3 cluding non-electronic devices, that will assist such 

4 individuals and voters in marking voter-verified 

5 paper ballots and presenting or transmitting the in6 formation printed or marked on such ballots back to 

7 such individuals and voters, and casting such ballots; 

8 ‘‘(2) a certification that the entity shall com9 plete the activities carried out with the grant not 

10 later than December 31, 2020; and 

11 ‘‘(3) such other information and certifications 

12 as the Director may require. 

13 ‘‘(c) AVAILABILITY OF TECHNOLOGY.—Any tech14 nology developed with the grants made under this section 

15 shall be treated as non-proprietary and shall be made 

16 available to the public, including to manufacturers of vot17 ing systems. 

18 ‘‘(d) COORDINATION WITH GRANTS FOR TECH19 NOLOGY IMPROVEMENTS.—The Director shall carry out 

20 this section so that the activities carried out with the 

21 grants made under subsection (a) are coordinated with the 

22 research conducted under the grant program carried out 

23 by the Commission under section 271, to the extent that 

24 the Director and Commission determine necessary to pro25 vide for the advancement of accessible voting technology. 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
12 

•HR 6093 IH

1 ‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

2 is authorized to be appropriated to carry out subsection 

3 (a) $10,000,000, to remain available until expended.’’. 

4 (2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of con5 tents of such Act is amended by inserting after the 

6 item relating to section 246 the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 246A. Study and report on accessible paper ballot verification mechanisms.’’. 

7 SEC. 5. RISK-LIMITING AUDITS. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title III of the Help America 

9 Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is amended 

10 by inserting after section 303 the following new section: 

11 ‘‘SEC. 303A. RISK-LIMITING AUDITS. 

12 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

13 ‘‘(1) RISK-LIMITING AUDIT.— 

14 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘risk-lim15 iting audit’ means a post-election process such 

16 that, if the reported outcome of the contest is 

17 incorrect, there is at least a 95 percent chance 

18 that the audit will replace the incorrect outcome 

19 with the correct outcome as determined by a 

20 full, hand-to-eye tabulation of all votes validly 

21 cast in that election contest that ascertains 

22 voter intent manually and directly from voter23 verifiable paper records. 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
13 

•HR 6093 IH

1 ‘‘(B) REPORTED OUTCOME.—The term ‘re2 ported outcome’ means the outcome of an elec3 tion contest which is determined according to 

4 the canvass and which will become the official, 

5 certified outcome unless it is revised by an 

6 audit, recount, or other legal process. 

7 ‘‘(C) INCORRECT OUTCOME.—The term 

8 ‘incorrect outcome’ means an outcome that dif9 fers from the outcome that would be determined 

10 by a full tabulation of all votes validly cast in 

11 that election contest, determining voter intent 

12 manually, directly from voter-verifiable paper 

13 records. 

14 ‘‘(D) OUTCOME.—The term ‘outcome’ 

15 means the winner or set of winners of an elec16 tion contest, which might be candidates or posi17 tions. 

18 ‘‘(2) BALLOT MANIFEST.—The term ‘ballot 

19 manifest’ means a record maintained by each county 

20 that— 

21 ‘‘(A) is created without reliance on any 

22 part of the voting system used to tabulate 

23 votes; 

24 ‘‘(B) functions as a sampling frame for 

25 conducting a risk-limiting audit; and 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
14 

•HR 6093 IH

1 ‘‘(C) contains the following information 

2 about ballots cast and counted: 

3 ‘‘(i) The total number of ballots cast 

4 and counted in the election (including 

5 undervotes, overvotes, and other invalid 

6 votes). 

7 ‘‘(ii) The total number of ballots cast 

8 in each contest in the election (including 

9 undervotes, overvotes, and other invalid 

10 votes). 

11 ‘‘(iii) A precise description of the 

12 manner in which the ballots are physically 

13 stored, including the total number of phys14 ical groups of ballots, the numbering sys15 tem for each group, a unique label for each 

16 group, and the number of ballots in each 

17 such group. 

18 ‘‘(b) REQUIREMENT.— 

19 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.— 

20 ‘‘(A) AUDITS.—Each State and jurisdic21 tion shall administer risk-limiting audits of the 

22 results of all elections for Federal office held in 

23 the State in accordance with the requirements 

24 of paragraph (2). 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
15 

•HR 6093 IH

1 ‘‘(B) FULL MANUAL TALLY.—If a risk-lim2 iting audit conducted under subparagraph (A) 

3 leads to a full manual tally of an election con4 test, the State or jurisdiction shall use the re5 sults of the full manual tally as the official re6 sults of the election contest. 

7 ‘‘(2) AUDIT REQUIREMENTS.— 

8 ‘‘(A) RULES AND PROCEDURES.— 

9 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Risk-limiting au10 dits shall be conducted in accordance with 

11 the rules and procedures established by the 

12 chief State election official of the State not 

13 later than 1 year after the date of the en14 actment of this section. 

15 ‘‘(ii) MATTERS INCLUDED.—The rules 

16 and procedures established under clause (i) 

17 may include the following: 

18 ‘‘(I) Rules for ensuring the secu19 rity of ballots and documenting that 

20 prescribed procedures were followed. 

21 ‘‘(II) Rules and procedures for 

22 ensuring the accuracy of ballot mani23 fests produced by jurisdictions. 

24 ‘‘(III) Rules and procedures for 

25 governing the format of ballot maniVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:07 Jun 21, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00015 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6093.IH H6093

sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
16 

•HR 6093 IH

1 fests, cast vote records, and other 

2 data involved in risk-limiting audits. 

3 ‘‘(IV) Methods to ensure that 

4 any cast vote records used in a risk5 limiting audit are those used by the 

6 voting system to tally the election re7 sults sent to the Secretary of State 

8 and made public. 

9 ‘‘(V) Procedures for the random 

10 selection of ballots to be inspected 

11 manually during each audit. 

12 ‘‘(VI) Rules for the calculations 

13 and other methods to be used in the 

14 audit and to determine whether and 

15 when the audit of each contest is com16 plete. 

17 ‘‘(VII) Procedures and require18 ments for testing any software used to 

19 conduct risk-limiting audits. 

20 ‘‘(B) TIMING.—The risk-limiting audit 

21 shall be completed not later than the date that 

22 the result of the election is certified by the 

23 State. 

24 ‘‘(C) PUBLIC REPORT.—After the comple25 tion of the risk-limiting audit, the State shall 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS
17 

•HR 6093 IH

1 publish a report on the results of the audit, to2 gether with such information as necessary to 

3 confirm that the audit was conducted properly. 

4 ‘‘(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Each State and jurisdiction 

5 shall be required to comply with the requirements of this 

6 section for the regularly scheduled election for Federal of7 fice in November 2020, and for each subsequent election 

8 for Federal office.’’. 

9 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS RELATED TO EN10 FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 

11 is amended by striking ‘‘and 303’’ and inserting ‘‘303, and 

12 303A’’. 

13 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

14 for such Act is amended by inserting after the item relat15 ing to section 303 the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 303A. Risk-limiting audits.’’. 

Æ 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with BILLS